Civs 5th Ed Trip Down Nostalgia Lane

Using an Aztec GSW roller I’ve made some ruined temple bases with overgrown vines for the Kroxigor and Slann base.

I seem to be getting less time to hobby during this lockdown period which sucks as my plastic pile has been accumulating for years just for this moment!

So whilst speed painting the Saurus took a little longer than speed painting the skinks, the command elements are taking forever! There is so much detail on these models is crazy!

I have almost completed the Standard bearer and the drummer, next i’ll tackle the champion who happens to have lost his arm at the moment which is why i’ll do him seperately.  On the plus side its a good excuse to use bright clolours. Im sticking with red, purple and yellow as my three colours to tie in the army.

Got to start thinking how im going to tackle the slann, i’ll probably make him red though i cant see how i’m going to make it work just yet.

While ive been waiting to finish off my saurus unit, specifically their shields and basing, ive started the second skink unit. These are the first of a 20 strong unit.

Need to neaten these up a lot but the base colours are down for now. Might base these up with the saurus as they are near to being finished.

Trying to keep the focus and get the army done. Almost 2.5 units done!

Reserving a post about basing with a flockbox

Add link to place that sells it

Add link to flock seller

2mm flock for general base use

4mm flock for tufts

1mm coloured flock for adding to the tops of tufts to make flowers

The Saurus are next up for some contrasty goodness. They are turning out to be a lot more involved than the skinks though as they have scales! Also the addition of a shield and more detailed weapon means i have to be more detailed.

However theyre nearly done, the command will take a while but if i can get the other 17 basic saurus done ill be halfway complete.

Ill try and do a post on using the flockbox and the basing as the first attempt was a bit of an experiment.

Finally finished the basing, took me a few days to knock up the tufts with my flock box before actually basing them all. I also decided to add in some vines and the odd stone to bring out the unit a bit more.

Picture of the unit bases below.

Slot put aside for a step by step on how i painted the skinks for those interested. Pics to follow.

Paints used are :

• Terradon Turquoise (GW Contrast)
• Snakebite Leather (GW Contrast)
• Black Templar (GW Contrast)
• Flesh Tearers Red (GW Contrast)
• Aggaros Dunes (GW Contrast)
• Skeleton Horde (GW Contrast)
• Gold (GW) – Specific name to follow
• Yellow (GW) – Specific name to follow
• Chaos black (GW) – Though any standard black paint will do

1. First up is the Terradon Turquoise, liberally applied to all the flesh areas, dont worry about being too neat at this stage we will be tidying up any mistakes in the next step. Try to get enough of the contrast that it pools in the recesses but doesnt flood the area and become difficult to control, we dont want to do more tidying up than we need! I chose to leave the underside of the skinks chin and bottom lip a lighter colour to give a bit more variation in his face.
2. Once the terradon turquoise is dry then get a white standard paint to cover up any areas that have the turquoise on that shouldnt, i.e. the straps across the chest or the crest. Using contrast means you have to paint over white (or another light colour) otherwise you can see the mistakes through the second coat which we dont want.

Nest step is to use the Skeleton horde contrast paint to cover the chest and the underside of the skinks mouth and bottom lip. Again get enough on your brush to pool in the recesses but not too much to flood the area, these are only small areas to cover.

Dont worry too much about going over the strap as we will be covering this with a darker brown so you dont notice the very light brown underneath in places.

Next up i like to add in the Flesh Tearers Red. This really makes the skink pop a bit more and contrasts (ironically) with the green/Turquoise colour.

I add this to the crest and the loincloth which adds some splashes of red but isnt overbearing. Be careful at this point not to go over any of the Turquoise and make sure the area you are painting is fully covered, any white missed areas stand out liek a sore thumb.

If you do go over any areas in Turquoise you will have to repaint white and then recolour Turquoise. This is the same for any mistakes, you have to go back to the base and start again, no cover up jobs here im afraid.

So i had my “new” Lizardman army, plemty of skinks and Saurus and some old metal models from various ebay finds. I pulled together my starter army based on the army book and then at down to decide a general colour scheme for them.

At the same time a few of my friends had picked up the new GW contrast paints and had been saying how good most of them were, so on a whim i picked a few up from our very own OTT store to give them a go. One of the pots was called Terradon Turquoise and noting the obvious nod towards the Lizardmen i added it to my basket and thought to give it a go.

After trying some colour schemes out (by the way red and black, as cool as it sounds, makes Saurus look like angry ladybirds) i slapped some of this on and fell in love with it. Its not particualrly imaginative as this is the rough colour saurus were in 5th ed but for ease of use its 10/10.

So using the skinks as my test for contrast i have to say i am very pleased with the outcome. The only part of the skinks in the picture that isnt contrast paint is the eyes. Ive managed to paint a unit of 20 in about 4 hours which is really fast (compared to my usual times anyhow).

Next steps is the basing. I am going swampy as befitting of any self respecting Lizardman army andwant to try out some water effect, reeds, and generally way more vegetation than usual. Then its onto the Saurus.

After being gifted some 5th ed saurus and skinks i found the army book for a couple of quid online and ordered it for my collection. I have a few 5th ed army books picked up through the years at bring and buys/ bootsales and love the fluff and just flicking through the pictures in them.

I got to the back of the book and noticed that they had a suggested starter army. Going back to the other books i own i saw they also had suggested starter armies, an idea was forming. I started out with High Elves so looked at their starter army and i had all the figures (not painted but i own them so that counts right?). Then i looked at the bretonnian one again i had all the figures, and again not painted but this could be the excuse i was waiting for! Then i looked at the Lizardmen and after a few choice ebay purchases i pulled together the starter army with one or two replacements.

I was never a fan of the old Slann model on palaquinn so opted for the newer version to head up my force. I have also decided to adjust my saurus warriors a bit and am in the process of giving them all new weapons from the latest ‘Seraphon’ (or whatever) models. Theyre also getting the newer shield designs as i think they just look way better than the tiny shields back in the day. Fortunately i managed to snag an ebay lot which gave me plenty of bitz to use on these.

So my goal for 2020 is to pull together and paint the starter armies for 5th ed Warhammer currently for High Elves, Lizardmen and Bretonnians, i may even be able to squeek in a wood elves force if the ebay/FB gods are kind.

First up, Lizardmen!